- User realizes the game is a juggling game, and not a football game (duh! read the title and description next time!)

- User gets pissed, clicks the "Rate Me" button, and gives a 1 star rating with some nasty remarks in the Android Market.

The rating above, well, what can you say? It is useful if you have not told the users the truth. But if you have already mentioned the facts in your description, then you really cant help it.

Overcoming the negativity.

Well, here are some little secrets I have learnt.

- Users who like your game are not gonna immediately rate it. Even if your game is just OK. (Excellent games do often get ratings fast)

- User who are not happy with your game ARE most likely gonna submit a rating (heck you made it easy with giving the "rate me" button, really digging your grave there!)

- users who like your game, MIGHT play it a second time, and a third time (after some time, even angry birds wont be able to get me back into the game)

- when a user plays your games a few time, you know they like it enough, these are the fishes you need to hook!

The plan.

Well, here is what I did. I made my "Rate Me" button hidden when the user plays the game the first time. I then keep track of how many times the user has started my game.

Once a user has played it 3 times, when they start the game for the 4th time, I show a prompt, saying stuff like "we hope you're enjoying playing our game, could you please rate this game and leave a remark on the android market to further improve the game's future development?".

Provide a button to "Rate Now", which brings the user to your game or app page on the market, and another button which says "Maybe later".

As simple as that, and I have managed to lessen down the 1 star reviews (there will still be some grumpy people giving 1 star I tell you!), and very often it is 5 or 4 stars that I get.

After that prompt, I make the "Rate Me" button on the main menu visible everytime they run the game and don't show a prompt anymore. This is for those who would want to rate at a later time.

How many runs before you ask the users to rate your app or game, is up to you. Try to understand your apps life. How long will users use it? Would they re-run it later? An app like a fart app might only get 1 run from the user, whereas an app like a to-do list will last much longer with the user.

Hope the above steps help you in getting better ratings and reviews of your apps!

When releasing a new app, it is understood that it will rank far down the food chain. After all, your app is new and unproven just yet.

What Google has done on the Play store is that they have given new app an opportunity to live, a chance to get to a more respectable place in the world of the unknown, the Google Play ranking algorithm.

Good looks go a long way in getting downloads for your apps. I'm a fan of looking out for beautiful app designs. I've looked at so many apps, gotten so much inspiration, but have yet to achieve anything that I can be proud of.

Blame genetics if you must. I am a developer, and although I play the guitar and love music and beautiful art and images (even tried photography once), I suck in the design area. I can give an idea, a design, but cant execute it. I'm a coder damnit!